News

Prof. CHAI Yang and Prof. Tommy WEI Minchen elected as new members of the Young Member Section at HKAES in 2024

Congratulations to Prof. CHAI Yang, Associate Dean of the Faculty of Science (Research) and Professor in the Department of Applied Physics, and Prof. Tommy WEI Minchen, Professor in the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering, on being one of the 7 new members of the Young Member Section (YMS) of the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (HKAES) in 2024.   The HKAES Young Member Section, comprising engineering professionals at or under the age of 45 at the time of admission, serves as a platform for members to connect, collaborate, and contribute to the development of engineering and science in Hong Kong.

Prof Zhang Xuming and Dr Tsoi Chi Chung won the Young Techpreneur Project 2023-2024

The Hong Kong Federation of Youth Groups (HKFYG), with the sponsorship of the Lo Kwee Seong Foundation, launched the “Young Techpreneur Project”. In 2023-2024, BioFlow Innovation Ltd., founded by Dr Tsoi Chi Chung and Prof. Zhang Xuming, was awarded as one of the six winners out of 87 teams.   The project aims to help the outstanding young candidates develop and expand their products by offering financial aid, business consultation, mentorship programmes, ample facilities and networks that potentially secure them further funding.   Congratulations to Prof. Zhang and Dr Choi!   Online coverage: Hong Kong Economic Journal (Chinese version only)

Prof. Kebin Shi delivered a speech during the PRI Research Seminar Series

The PRI Research Seminar was successfully held today, covering the topic of” High Resolution Optical Imaging Enabled by Field Engineering - from Physics to Engineering”. The PRI Research Seminar was graced by the presence of Prof. Kebin Shi, Professor of Institute of Modern Optics, School of Physics, Peking University National Bioimaging Center at Peking University, shared his valuable experience and insight with the participants.   Prof. Shi’s research focuses on developing high resolution photonic systems and devices based on ultrafast/nonlinear optical principles for spectroscopy, imaging and applications.   We would like to extend our gratitude to Prof. Shi for his invaluable contribution to the seminar and our sincere appreciation to all the participants who attended the seminar.

Congratulations to Dr HUANG Dongmei on being awarded the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2024

Dr HUANG Dongmei, one of the PRI members, has been selected as one of the Awardees of the PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) 2024.   The YIRA assessment panel has reviewed the submissions, interviewed shortlisted applicants and selected 6 YIRA awardees out of 53 submissions.   The PolyU Young Innovative Researcher Award (YIRA) aims to honor our young PolyU researchers under the age of 35 who have demonstrated novelty, contributed to technology advancement, and propelled transformational innovation into solutions for addressing problems in society with a vision for a positive change to the future.   We take this opportunity to congratulate Dr Huang for her achievements.   Awardee Department  Title Research Focus  Dr HUANG Dongmei Electrical and Electronic Engineering Assistant Professor High performance swept laser and its applications                                                     

Prof. Junle Qu and Prof. Tymish Y. Ohulchanskyy delivered a speech during the PRI Research Seminar Series

The PRI Research Seminar was successfully held last week. Prof. Junle Qu, Chair Professor and the Director of the Center for Biomedical Photonics at Shenzhen University, and Prof. Tymish Y. Ohulchanskyy, Distinguished Professor of the College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering at Shenzhen University, shared their valuable experience and insight with the participants.   Covering the topic “Super-Resolution Optical Imaging: In Vivo, In Situ, and Multicolor” for Prof. Qu and “Near Infrared Phototheranostics Using Biocompatible Nanoformulations” for Prof. Ohulchanskyy, we would like to extend our gratitude to Prof. Qu and Prof. Ohulchanskyy for their invaluable contribution to the seminar and our sincere appreciation to all the participants who attended the seminar.

Prof. Tommy WEI Minchen won the Hong Kong Engineering Science and Technology (HKEST) Award 2023

The Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (HKAES) has announced that Prof. Tommy WEI Minchen, Professor in the Department of Building Environment and Energy Engineering (BEEE) and Management Committee Member of the Photonics Research Institute (PRI), has been selected for the HKEST Award 2023 for his outstanding accomplishments in colour and imaging science, illuminating technology and engineering.   The HKEST Award was launched in 2022 by the Hong Kong Academy of Engineering Sciences (HKAES) to recognize exceptional contributions and excellence among the younger generations in Hong Kong in the field of engineering science and technology. The Award sets a high standard and holds significant prominence in commending young scientists, engineers, and technologists from diverse disciplines who have excelled in developing creative solutions to problems through research, development, innovation, and entrepreneurship, and have made significant advancements to the betterment of society.   Congratulation to Prof. Wei!   For more details, please visit: https://hkestaward2023.hkaes.org/en/winners.asp

Prof. Zuyuan He delivered a speech during the PRI Distinguished Seminar Series on 22 April 2024

The PRI Distinguished Seminar was successfully held yesterday, covering the topic of” Optical Fiber Distributed Acoustic Sensors: Challenges and Solutions”. The Distinguished Seminar was graced by the presence of Prof. Zuyuan He, Chair Professor of the Department of Electronic Engineering at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, whose invaluable contributions and insights were central to the seminar’s success.   We extend our gratitude to Prof. He for sharing their expertise and enriching the discourse. We would also like to thank all participants for their active engagement.

Prof. Cheng-Wei Qiu delivered a speech during the PRI Distinguished Seminar Series on 8 April 2024

The Photonics Research Institute (PRI) Distinguished Seminar Series “Synthetic Interface Optics: Plasmonic / dielectric, TMDC and van der Waals Metasurfaces” was successfully held on 8 April 2024.   We are delighted to have Prof. Cheng-Wei Qiu, Dean’s Chair Professor of the National University of Singapore, Fellow of APS, Optica, SPIE and The Electromagnetics Academy (US) to share his valuable insights and experiences.   Prof. Qiu’s Research expertise and interest are Metasurface photonics, 2D-materials-based quantum nanophotonics, spin-orbit coupling, van der Waals photonics.   We would like to extend our gratitude to Prof. Qiu for his contribution. His expertise and knowledge were greatly appreciated.   We look forward to hosting more such enriching events in the future. Stay tuned for updates on our website.

PRI researcher develops a novel on-chip photothermal gas sensor

A joint research team led by Prof. Wei Jin, Associate Director of Photonics Research Institute (PRI) and Chair Professor of Photonic Instrumentation in the Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering of PolyU, and Prof. Chuantao Zheng of Jilin University, has developed a novel on-chip photothermal spectroscopy sensor for high sensitivity gas detection.   On-chip waveguide sensors have attracted considerable attention due to its ultra-compact footprint and potential for large-scale integration. However, existing waveguide gas sensors are primarily based on direct absorption spectroscopy which suffer from limited sensitivity and measurement range. The team demonstrated a new method for high sensitivity on-chip gas measurement by using photothermal spectroscopy. This technique detects photothermal phase change resulting from non-radiative relaxation upon light absorption by gas molecules, presenting itself as an indirect technique capable of circumventing the limitations of direct absorption measurement.   By selecting chalcogenide glass (ChG) as the core-layer material and fabricating thermally-isolated ChG-on-SU8 waveguide for thermal field accumulation, the team has demonstrated a remarkable acetylene detection sensitivity of 4 parts-per-million and a dynamic range exceeding 5 orders of magnitude, which outperform traditional direct absorption sensor by nearly 2 and 3 orders of magnitude, respectively.   The research findings have been recently published in Laser & Photonics Reviews. Further investigation is underway to optimize the waveguide structure, improve thermal accumulation and understand deeper the optical-thermal-phase transfer mechanism. The team looks forward to collaborating with the industry in further development of the integrated on-chip sensors and applications.   For more details, please click Here.

Organic solar cell breakthrough from Prof. Gang LI’s team

Prof. Gang LI’s research team published a paper “Rational molecular and device design enables organic solar cells approaching 20% efficiency” on Nature Communications on 28 February 2024, which reported a new efficiency breakthrough of organic solar cells.   Ternary strategy that introduces a guest component into the benchmark host blend is a promising method further to improve the power conversion efficiency of organic solar cells, but how to design a suitable third component remains challenging. Here, the authors systematically investigated the design rules of guest molecules by theoretical simulations and successfully synthesized a new molecule, o-BTP-eC9, contributing to a record organic solar cell with 19.9% (19.5 certified) efficiency.   The paper is available at https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-024-46022-3